Means and method of orienting deflecting tools in wells



July 27, 1937. c. l. STOKENBURY MEANS AND METHOD OF ORIENTING DEFLECTING TOOLS IN WELLS Filed Nov. 2 1956 GI STOKENBURY.

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Patented July 27, 1937 UNITED STATES MEANS AND METHOD OF ORIENTING DE- FLECTING TOOLS IN Clyde I. Stokenbury, Long Beach, Calif., assignor to Eastman Oil Well Survey Company, Dallas, Tex., a corporation of Delaware Application November 28, 1936, Serial No. 113,134

'1 Claims.

The invention relates to a means and method of moving a string of pipe in a well bore and has particular application in the positioning of deflecting tools and other instruments in well bores where it is desired to know the-orientation of the tool or its azimuth.

It will be understood that as a string of pipe is moved in the well bore where the pipe is niade A up of pipe sections that the pipe sections are connected and disconnected in stages so that their movement is efiected by a step by step operation until the deflecting tool has either been moved into or out of the. well bore or ,to some predetermined elevation.

It is one of the objects of the invention to providea simple and economical apparatus which 'can be readily attached to the pipe sections in order to carry some predetermined point on the pipe along the periphery of the pipe so that it 9 will be known at all times where the original point is with respect to the aligned point which is being carried along the pipe as it. moves. v

Another object of theinvention is to transfer a predetermined point along the length of thesections of pipe as they are connected or disconnected during the movement of the pipe by transferring this point along a plane.

Another object of the invention is-to provide an apparatus for aligning pipe sections which includes a target and a sighting device which are to be alternately connected and disconnected to the successive pipe sections in order to carry a. point along in the plane of the pipe as it is assembled or disassembled.

Another object is to provide an apparatus which may be used by only one operator in the derrick because the person on the derrick floor need only insert and remove the target and release the clamp while all of the sighting is done by the der- 40 rick man.

Another object of the invention is to-provide a pair of clamping members which can be alter-- nately attached to the pipe so that a sightingdevice and a target may be carried along the pipe in a. known relation to a predetermined point on v the periphery of the pipe. Another object of the invention is to provide a clamp member having a means thereon to receive either a sighting device or a target which can be alternately attached thereto in order to carry a point in alignment along a string of pipe.-

Other and further objects of the invention will be readily apparent when the following description is considered in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

V 5 Fig. 2 is a plan view looking down on one of.

-the clamping members which is supporting a tele-,

scope or sighting, device by which the alignment is transferred.

Fig. 3 shows a transverse section of the clamping device shown in Fig. 2 but carrying a target member which can be alternately positioned therein with the sighting device in order to transfer the point of alignment along'the string of pipe. a

In Fig. 1 a derrick is indicated generally at 2 and is provided with the usualcrown block 3, the traveling block 4, and the operating cable 5. Suspended on the traveling block, are the eleva tors 6 which serve to support' the string of pipe I which is to be moved in the well bore and whose position is to be aligned so as to ascertain its relative azimuth at any time during the movement in the hole.

It is' to be understood that the means and method of the present invention may be applied in practice in various forms but the invention concerns itself with aligning the adjacent pipe sections so that some predetermined point on point of the periphery of the pipe may be carried along 30 the pipe so that the plane along which the predetermined point has been moved is known on the surface at all times.

The drawings of Figs. 1, 2, and 3 are all diagrammatic, andfor purposes of illustration present a deflecting tool Ill as being moved into the top of the well bore after having been connected to a section of pipe II. It will be seen that this deflecting tool has a deflecting face l2 whose position in the well bore after it reaches the desired elevation is to be ascertained by carrying, along the pipe a point which, for purposes of illustration, will be taken as" the normal or per pendicular to this deflecting face I 2. The normal has been indicated by the line of .a ta "it H which extends perpendicular to the face l2. Any other point may be selected arbitrarily, however..

The number of stages which are required to -move the pipe in the hole will of course depend Q upon the length of the pipe sections, the distance 50 the string of pipe is to be moved, and the height of the derrick 2. In the present instancethe derrick is shown as being of a height to accom- 5 modate more than the length of one pipe section such as H and a second pipe section i5 is shown 55 as connected thereto with the upper end oi the section i being supported in the elevator 6. Any desired number of pipe sections may be made up together before they are attached to the string of pipe being lowered into the well bore. In practice, these pipe sections are known as singles, doubles, thribles or fourbles, depending upon how many sections are made .up before'they are attached in the pipe string.

In carrying out the invention a plurality of clamping members 20 may be used to support the target l4 and the sighting device. To carry the selected point along the pipe one of the clamping members 20 is placed about the upper end of the pipe section which is uppermost in the stage in the derrick and this clamp is then moved circumferentially about the pipe until the sighting member 2| can be trained upon the line H as a target. The target may be fixed initially to the tool In by a clamp 20 or otherwise. When it has been so-circumferentially adjusted the set screw 22 is then adjusted so as to securely fix the clamping member to thepipe in this position.

It seems obvious therefore that the sighting device 2|, and in fact the entire clamp 20, is now positioned on the pipe so that it is in alignment with the target l4.

The sighting device 2| is carried in a socket 24 which is formed in the body 23 of the clamping device, as clearly seen in Fig. 2, the body 23 being made up of a circular section which is arranged to receive the periphery of the pipe I5. The point 25 of the clamping member 22 will bite into the pipe so as to draw the shoulders 26 and 21 firmly against the opposite side of the pipe. These shoulders 26 and 21 will be of suflicient length so that the clamping member 20 will be properly aligned along the pipe in order to support the sighting device 2|.

The sighting device may be in the form of a telescope by which an accurate sight can be taken along a plane radially of the pipe. The sighting device is supported in a yoke 30 upon which it may be pivoted as at 3| so that across hair in the sighting device will be aligned with the line 4 of the target to indicate that they are in the same circumferential position. The yoke 3|! in turn carries a shank 33 which is arranged to be positioned in the socket 24. It is to be understood that the shank 33 can only be positioned in the socket 24 in an exact position with respect to the center line 35 which passes through the point of the set screw 25, the socket 24 and the center of. the yoke 30. While the drawing shows this position as radial it'is to be understood that it can be offset or otherwise positioned. In this manner, whenever a sight is taken through the telescope 2| the line of sight will be along a plane which is parallel to the axis of the pipe I5 and in alignment with any predetermined point such as the point 36 on the periphery of the pipe which will move along that plane.

When the clamp 20 has been suitably positioned upon the pipe and the alignment sight taken through the telescope 2| then the target l4 can be removed from the lower portion of the pipe and the pipe moved downwardly in the well bore, it being understood that the present description is given in connection with the lowering of the string of pipe, the operation being reversed in event the pipe is being raised.

As thepipe is to be'lowered the telescope 2| will be removed from its socket but the clamp 20 will remain in its predetermined fixed position on the pipe. As the lowering operation occurs of course the clamp 20 will move down to its position close to the floor of the derrick. Another stage of pipe sections will then be added to the top of the section l5 and another clampingmember identical with the member 20' will be posi- 5 tioned about the upper end of this 'new stage of pipe sections and the telescope 2| having been retained in the upper part of the derrick by the derrick-man is now being positioned in the socket 24 in this second clamp which is being positioned about the upper end of the pipe. In the meantime the target M will be positioned in the first clamp which has been lowered to the derrick floor. The target l4 carries a shank 33 which is identically the same as the shank 33 to which yoke 30 of the sighting device 2| -is attached. In other words, the sighting device 2| and the target M are interchangeable in the clamp so that they can be alternately arranged therein in order to carry the point in alignment along a plane on the pipe.

When the parts are in this position} the sighting device will be moved circumferentially into alignment with the target which is now carried by the first clamp which previously carried the sighting device, whereas the sighting device is now carried by the second clamp. This second clamp is now adjusted circumferentially around the pipe until the sighting device is trained directly on the target I4 and it is then fixed in position. It should be noted that the sighting device need not be exactly vertical but can sight along the line l4 in the plane thereof. This permits the speedy location of the apparatus. .The lowering movement of the pipe is then continued and another stage of pipesections is added with the targetagain being removed from its clamp and the telescope being removed from its clamp so that what was .the upper clamp now moves down to the lower position and the upper clamp moved upwardly to 40 be attached to the pipe the second time. This alternation of clamps and the sighting and target members is continued until the pipe string arrives at the desired elevation in the well bore. At

this time the last clamp which has been afiixed to the pipe indicates exactly to the operator the circumferential position of the plane along which the predetermined point on the periphery of the .pipe has been moved during the lowering movement. In other words, in the example illustrated here the position ofthis last clamp will indicate the normal tothe deflecting face l2 which was selected as being the point which would be carried'along in alignment.

If the deflecting face predetermined position of the compass the entire .pipe string can be rotated through the desired are so as to move this face to its desired position so that the pipe is in this manner oriented in the hole with respect to any desired location and its azimuth is therefore known.

The present means and method is of particular advantage because it is not necessary to spend the time to sight upon a target at'a distance which is diflicult at night and during unsettled weather conditions, neither does it rely upon any particular scale, algebraic computation, angular summation, or any zero object other than the predetermined point which has been selected as being the point which will move in alignment during the movement of the pipe.

The lack of'mathematical calculations on the floor of the derrick with its noise and confusion are of material advantage and tend toward a greater accuracy. The apparatus used is simple" I2 is then to be set atany 55 and economical and can be manipulated by a single operator in the derrick who does the sighting. The use of two telescopes is eliminated and if desired a two-waytelephone or sound equipment may be placed in the derrick for conversation between the workers.

It is to be understood that the clamp, the sighting device and the target may take any particular form or construction because those illustrated in the drawing are merely diagrammatic.

What is claimed is? 1. An apparatus to orient a string of pipe being moved in a bore hole comprising a pair of clamp members, a socket in each member, a sighting device, a target, and means on each, said sighting device and said target so. that they may be disposed in said sockets so that by sighting said device upon said target the two clamp members may be alternately attached to the pipe so that the azimuth of the'original position of the target 'can be ascertained as the sections of pipe are moved longitudinally.

2. In an apparatus for use with a plurality of sections of pipe to be progressively connected or disconnected and moved longitudinally of a bore hole, a means to transfer an original plane of the string of pipe which is being moved which comprises a pair of members adapted to be alternately fixed to the pipe, and means adapted to be removably positioned on said members so that each member when fixed to the pipe can be aligned with the alternate member which has preceded it by sighting along the pipe, said means comprising a sighting device and target therefor.

3. A clamp member for aligning pipe sections comprising a body, means thereon to clamp said body to the pipe, means also on said body to receive an aligning member so that said clamping means may be operated when the body is aligned, and a target device to be disposed in said last means.

4. In the art-of orienting a string of pipe into or out of a well bore which comprises the steps of fixing a target in any desired relative angular position upon the string of pipe, alternately sighting along the pipe from a position on the pipe upon the target, and then reestablishing the position of the target at another position longitudinally along the pipe from which the sight was well bore a plane which has a definite fixed position relative to the string of pipe, which com-.

prises alternately fixing atarget and a sighting device upon the pipe, sighting with the device from a point on the pipe along the pipe so as to reestablish the target on the pipe at each stage in the same vertical plane with respect to the pipe so that at any stage it is known that the.

7 position of the target represents the angular position of the plane with respect to the pipe.

6. A method of orienting a string of pipe into or out of a well bore regardless of any rotation thereof during the raising or lowering thereof pipe from a position on the pipe to a predetermined point also on the pipe so as to position the sighting device upon the pipe in a predetermined plane, and thereafter again sighting along the pipe to transfer the plane to another longitudinally spaced position on the pipe.

7. 'A method of orienting a deflecting tool which is-to be positioned in a bore hole by an operating string of pipe which pipe is made up of sections to be coupled and uncoupled which method comprises the steps of sighting from a point on the pipe along a plane which is normal to the deflecting face of the tool, establishing the which comprises the steps of sighting along the sighting device on the pipe in such plane, and

' thereafter reestablishing the circumferential poat thesurface will indicate the plane of the normal to the face of-the deflecting tool, and rotat-- ing the pipe as a; whole to position'the deflecting face in the desired circumferential'position.

CLYDE I I. STOKENBURY. 

